New study: 80% of companies invest in conversational customer engagement
A recently published white paper by the International Data Corporation (IDC) shows the results of a Sinch-sponsored study on the use of conversational customer engagement: While almost 80% of the surveyed companies plan to invest in conversational customer engagement to improve Customer Experience, more than half of them will be using a Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) to do so.
What is CPaaS?
CPaaS stands for Communications Platform as a Service. CPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables companies to quickly and easily integrate advanced real-time communications capabilities into their existing systems – for example Sinch .
Functions such as voice, video, and messaging are implemented through the use of application programming interfaces (APIs). This allows companies to incorporate new features such as chatbots and contact centers into their business apps with little effort. Ultimately, CPaaS acts as the engine in the background, offering a wide variety of communications capabilities with easy scaling.
Schematic representation of contact channels unified in CPaaS and available to customers.
How CPaaS provides multichannel communication
Multichannel communications have empowered companies to connect with their customers on the channel of their choice. By leveraging leading CPaaS offerings like those by Sinch with applications like MessengerPeople’s Messenger Communication Platform , businesses can use all the popular messaging apps – WhatsApp , Facebook Messenger (Messenger from Meta), Apple iMessages (Apple Messages for Business), Instagram Direct Messaging, Telegram, Viber, SMS, RCS, MMS, Voice, e-Mail and more – through a single interface. As a result, companies do not even have to worry about implementing new channels, but can integrate them into existing systems – as a Service.
The term Customer Experience (CX) describes the feelings of a customer while shopping. Factors that influence the perceived CX can be the structure of the store, level of service and how easy it is to find products. It’s through conversational customer engagement that businesses can accelerate CX innovation to build long-term loyalty and drive immediate revenue growth.
Study shows: Majority of companies will use CPaaS for conversational engagement
In the new white paper, the IDC analyzes a global survey of customer experience decision-makers at 355 companies to get insights on the use of conversational customer engagement and to assess its impact on business outcomes.
Regarding usage of messaging platforms, the survey shows that companies are already taking steps towards a more conversational customer engagement. For instance, the 5 biggest messaging platforms are WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Viber and WeChat and make up 6.7 billion active users. Already, more than half of the companies are using either WhatsApp (61%), Instagram (52%), Facebook Messenger (51%) or SMS (48%). These numbers should definetly increase in the following years, as companies are eager to continue their road to conversational engagement.
Among the IDC White Paper’s highlights:
- 79% of respondents have initiated or plan to implement conversational customer engagement within the next two years . The majority ( 52% ) will leverage CPaaS platforms to do so.
- While most companies use multiple channels and a majority are leveraging conversations, only 22% of companies use more than three . Consumers worldwide typically use four messaging channels.
- Customer service activities — such as customer care and support and customer satisfaction surveys — are the top use cases. They are followed by operations activities and transactions tied to financial payments.
- Only 35% of organizations allow a customer to transfer from a chatbot to a live agent for enhanced support. Those who have implemented conversational customer engagement are much more likely to provide this fulfilling customer experience.
🔎 To get a detailed look at the insights, head over to Sinch and download the Whitepaper .
New IDC white paper
About Sinch
Sinch brings businesses and people closer with tools enabling personal engagement. Its leading cloud communications platform lets businesses reach every mobile phone on the planet, in seconds or less, through mobile messaging, email, voice and video. Sinch is a trusted software provider to mobile operators, and its platform powers business-critical communications for many of the world’s largest companies. Sinch has been profitable and fast-growing since its foundation in 2008. Its headquarters are located in Stockholm, Sweden, and it has local presence in more than 50 countries. Shares are traded at NASDAQ Stockholm: XSTO:SINCH. Visit Sinch at sinch.com .
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